Here we shall show how Christ is the same to our souls as light is to our bodies.
First. 'Tis the property of light to make manifest; that is, to cause things to appear and be seen: without light, nothing can be seen; all things lie hid; nothing can be discerned by the most piercing sight without some light. But when light comes, then things are made to appear; then things may be seen distinctly as they are in their various forms, figures, and colors.
So Jesus Christ enlightens the soul that comes unto him, makes glorious things manifest to him that he never saw before.
When a man is enlightened savingly by Christ, he is as it were brought into a new world; he may say, "Once I was blind, but now I see."
He sees then that he was in darkness before; though he was not sensible of it till now, he is like one that was born and brought up in a cave, where is nothing but darkness, but now is brought out into the lightsome world, enlightened by the beams of the sun, and greatly admires and wonders at those things which he never saw before, looks and gazes with sweet astonishment on the pleasing variety of things that are discovered by the light unto him.
He now sees things in their true shapes and colors that he never saw before: how he sees his own vileness and filthiness, which he had often heard of before but never believed. He now sees plain enough the glory of Christ: he, while in his dark cave, had been often told what a glorious thing [the] sun was, but he had no notion of it till now. But now he sees with his own eyes, how doth he delight to behold the beauties of this light of the world!
He had often before heard many discourses about religion, about God and Jesus Christ, heaven and hell, free grace and mercy, the excellency of religion and the glorious mysteries of the gospel, but it all seemed as a strange thing to him before; but now he is enlightened by Christ, he sees with his own eyes and admires and is astonished, as being really sensible of the truth of these things.
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